You get an alert “Software update is available” while working on your computer or scanning through your phone. You are in the middle of something very important that can’t wait. You put the alert off only to be forgotten. Believe it or not it has happened to the best of us, not just the average home PC user, but to Fortune 500 companies. Just what are these updates, why do we even need them. The computer is running fine, why do I want to update and make the computer possibly run worse. If you are put off by updates and the time it consumes to install, just think of what the worst possible outcome might be. Some of you might remember Equifax which is known for credit reporting. Equifax suffered a massive preventable data breach affecting over 143 Million people. The company had failed to update its software, the update which had the patches that would have prevent the massive data hack was available almost 2 months prior to the data breach. Now that you know the importance of the updates lets look at other reason why updates are necessary and important to keep up to date.
Protecting your information from Security threats: The main reason anyone does software updates is making sure you are protected against the latest cyber threat. Cyber criminals are always looking for new ways to infiltrate software programming and once they do they can get to any information available to them. Updates are usually in response to the latest threats out there and it’s a good idea to be up to date.
Updates can help protect you documents: Without updates you leave yourself vulnerable to Malware. Some types of Malware can clean out your documents and transmit the documents to a remote location. Ransomware has accounted for huge loss of data, this is when a cyber criminal gets access to your data and basically locks you out from accessing the data. The data is held hostage until payment is made for its release.
New features are added through updates: Updates are not just to protect you from the doom and gloom of data breach or security threats. There are other aspects to updates positive ones that help you make the end user experience much better. Updates are created at time to get glitches that might occur with the current software and remedy it, other improvements can be functionality. Updates can improve the stability of the software.
It is a very good idea to make sure you have updates on auto, cyber criminals are known to disable automatic updates, it is good practice to make sure your auto update is enabled or if you do not have auto update on your device make it a habit to check when new updates are available and update.
The importance of updating your software cannot be stressed enough. Updates can take up time but updates can be scheduled and run when you are not using your computer or phone. This will ensure that you are protected as well as have a better user experience. Customized Computer Services, Inc. (CCSI) has been serving the Dallas-Fort Worth area for over 29 years providing computer, printer and Managed IT services. Contact us and find out how we can help your business.